


Fare

by scy



Category: Battlestar Galactica
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-01-01
Updated: 2010-01-01
Packaged: 2017-10-05 14:09:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,067
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/42559
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/scy/pseuds/scy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>a meal prompts questions</p>
            </blockquote>





	Fare

**Author's Note:**

> Sionnain made a request. Follows Plenty, Savor, Entrench, Defend, and Omen.

Standing a safe distance from what was happening in the kitchen, Sam raised his voice to be heard over the clanging and swearing. "Kara, field rations don't count as real food."

Kara spun around and waved a handful something that looked dehydrated and very unappetizing. "The Fleet used to make us eat them for weeks, Sam, what does that tell you?"

Sam winced and put a hand out. "Just give me that package."

"I don't think so." Kara turned to the stove and glanced inside the pot there. "I bet if I cut this stuff up really fine, it'll add something to whatever this is."

"It's stew," Sam said. "And, I don't think Leoben is going to be thrilled that you're in here."

"This is our house, Sam."

"Yeah, but it's his kitchen, you know that."

"It is not."

Giving up on reason, Sam lunged at Kara, and she dodged the first time, but he caught her the second, and they landed on the floor, wrestling for the package that was causing such trouble. They caught sight of a pair of scuffed boots and looked up to see Leoben staring at them.

"I would ask what you're doing, but I can guess from the state of the kitchen."

"What do you mean?" Kara asked, wriggling out from under Sam, but he held onto her waistband and wouldn't let her get away entirely. "Nothing's wrong."

"You've got flour on your nose," Sam said, and Kara swatted him.

"Well, you do."

"If you had wanted to paint something, there is a wall in the living room," Leoben said, but stood back too far for Kara to grab his ankle.

"I wanted to make dinner," Kara said.

"You know that I would do that for you."

"But it's my turn."

"Nobody said that."

"Shut up, Sam."

"Really, nobody said that you had to cook. Ever."

"I want to help."

"You do," Leoben said.

"How?"

Sam glanced at Leoben in desperation and made a helpless face. "You do lots of stuff."

"Name one thing." Kara rolled out from under Sam and sat up, crossing her arms. "Go on."

"You're working on that Raider."

"I've been poking at it for months, Sam, I don't think that counts as work."

"You're making progress," Leoben said.

"Did the ship tell you that?" Kara asked.

"Yes, it did."

Sam blinked. "Huh?"

"You can talk to it," Kara said. "What am I saying, of course you can. It's nice that you can make new friends."

"We have communicated prior to landing on this planet."

"Because you just love hooking into the stream and chatting with anything that might want to ramble on for hours about anything it can think of."

"It is important to maintain contact with all forms of life."

"Which is what I'm trying to do," Kara said loudly, and then scooted back into the cupboard and bit her lip.

"Oh," Sam said, and Leoben came several steps closer. "You don't have to do that."

"Why not? Kara waved a hand at the three of them. "What are we doing?"

"Nothing much."

"Yeah, that's what I'm saying. We all worked so hard to find Earth, and we did, but now what are we doing? Sam, you're a carpenter, and Leoben, you cook? We can't get the Adama and Roslin to even take us seriously."

"Lee is going to talk to his father," Sam said.

"The Quorom will listen, if the Admiral does not," Leoben said.

"Great, and in the meantime we're hanging out in the kitchen."

"That's not all we do," Sam said, feeling defensive. "Besides, we do other things too. I can't sit around listening to replays of Pyramid games all day."

"You would if it was possible," Leoben said.

"No, and I'm not even that interested in it anymore."

Leoben's eyebrows rose. "You and Kara knocked each other down for three hours on Saturday during a match."

"That was endurance training."

"On a Pyramid court that you spent two days measuring and putting together."

"Weren't you listening? I'm not a Seabuck anymore."

"If they had a team you'd sign up in a second," Kara said, grinning.

"It's not like they'd let me."

"Why not?" Leoben asked.

"Don't be stupid, Leoben, you can see the future, you know what would happen if I tried to do something as dumb as be a part of the Fleet again. They didn't want me when the Final Five were exposed, and they think I was playing a game with them all along."

"You don't have the instincts for it."

"Hey."

"He was trying to make you feel better," Kara said and rubbed her arms. "Now we're both feeling useless, good job, Leoben."

Without apologizing, Leoben crouched down in front of Kara and stared at her. When she glared back, never dropping her eyes, he smiled and leaned in, lips parted, and breathed lightly on her face. He stayed like that for almost a minute, and then Kara grabbed his shirt and swung herself up against him. He sat down on the floor, giving her room to brace herself, and Kara laughed as she settled on his lap, legs on either side of his hips.

"Is this you saying that you're sorry?"

"I am not," Leoben said, and that made Kara laugh harder.

"You're doing it for us? To make us see something, is that right?"

"That sounds like him," Sam said and came up behind Leoben and put a hand on Kara's shoulder and smiled at her. "What are we supposed to learn from this one?"

"It should be obvious."

"It's just too much effort for you not to be cryptic, isn't it?" Sam asked, slid his arm around Leoben's chest and pulled him backwards so that Leoben had to hang onto Kara to keep her from losing her balance, and that seemed to agree with both of them. Kara dug her fingers into his shirt and reached out with her other hand to yank Sam closer.

"Come on, tell us what you really think, Conoy, it's not like we can't handle it." Sam got Kara's attention and frowned. "Can you think of anything that would make him talk?"

"You mean and make sense?" Kara asked.

"Yeah."

"Well, there are some knives around here." She said it jokingly, but Sam felt Leoben's body go still and wanted to keep this from getting too bloody. "But, there is one thing that you showed me, remember?" Her fingers moved in the air, and Sam nodded.

Leoben glanced at Kara and then back at Sam quizzically, but they only shook their heads.

"Just wait," Kara said, and kissed Leoben hard, holding nothing back, and Sam thought, as entertainment and distractions went, that was a great one. He watched them for a couple seconds, and as he watched them sink into each other, losing themselves in the novelty of touching without arguing, which still kept them apart some of the time, Sam made his move.

With a hand still resting on Kara's arm, Sam spread his other across Leoben's shoulder, let him breathe deeply, and then ran his hand down the center of Leoben's back and laughed softly when the blond snapped upright, and couldn't help but arch backwards into Sam's fingers.

"You like that?" Sam asked, and when Leoben made a soft noise, he shook his head.

"What was that?"

"Ask him again, Sam, I think he's having trouble thinking straight."

"Leoben, you should be able to pay attention to more than one thing at once," Sam said, scolding Leoben, but smirking at Kara, and nodded at her.

He saw Kara press her fingers ruthlessly against Leoben's skin until bone protested. It wasn't manners but an order for patience, and Sam wondered how long it would last. One thing none of them tolerated was the idea that anyone was completely in control, and even if he was willing to let Kara or Sam take the lead much of the time, Leoben wasn't completely submissive. As Kara's fingers bruised his skin, Leoben covered her hand with his own and answered her possessiveness in kind.

"That's better," Kara said, and Sam knew that she didn't mind if one of them left a few marks on her, so she had that well in hand while Sam kept stroking Leoben's back until he found the right pattern.

It didn't take very long for him to remember what he'd done the last time he'd gotten a reaction like this out of Leoben, and when the tell-tale glow became visible and began to pulse in time with Leoben's heartbeat, Sam put his mouth on the other Cylon's spine and felt the warmth against his lips.

"What does it feel like?" Kara asked.

"Hot," Sam said.

Kara ran her hands over Leoben's face, catching his attention and dug her nails into his chin to make sure he didn't drift off again. "Good?"

"Yes."

"That's it? You can go on for hours about lines in the sand and the way water makes everything clear, but you can't tell us what's going on in your own head?"

"I can, but why do you want to know?"

"Because," Kara said, and shoved Leoben harder into Sam, keeping him immobile, making certain that he was paying attention, "you haven't told us much of anything. Not about Sam, not why you're here, what you want."

"I want what I have always sought," Leoben said.

"Can you ever just tell anyone what you're after?"

"No simple answer is ever welcomed."

"Who said that?" Sam asked.

"Humans are unhappy with the truth, they expect more from everything."

"We're not easily pleased, what's wrong with that?"

Leoben was distracted by what Sam was doing behind him, but he jerked his chin down and stared at Kara. "You are not an ordinary mortal, what pleases other has never been enough for you." He smiled. "As evidenced by our arrangement."

"You mean, I'm never happy, so it figures that I would end up with two Cylons."

"That's kind of messed up," Sam said.

"You saw this coming?" Kara nodded at Sam, and he slowed the movement of his fingers until their very rhythm was a prompt for action. When Leoben didn't answer immediately, he stopped touching him, and when the blond spoke again, Sam resumed stroking him where that strange glow hummed beneath his skin.

"I have seen many things, and many of them will not come to pass in the time it takes to tell you of them," Leoben said.

"Okay, that's enough of you not telling me what I want to know," Kara said in frustration, and tipped all three of them onto their sides, tore at clothing, with Sam's help and Leoben's ready agreement, there was little more talking.

Afterward, when they lay together on the floor, bodies covered in sweat, Kara groaned. "I don't think I won that time."

"Do you have to win every one?" Sam asked, and sat up so that Kara's blow missed him. He got to his feet and poured a glass of water. He drank half of it before Kara grabbed the glass and took a sip. Then she offered the rest to Leoben, who accepted it without taking it out of her hands, and she tipped the glass up so he could finish every drop. When he was done, she set the glass on the counter and came back to Leoben and Sam.

None of them had pulled their clothes back on, and Kara snorted. "Maybe we should just take our clothes off before we get into a fight."

"That would save a lot of time," Sam said.

"I was thinking more of us not having to buy more clothes," Kara said, and as she had never been one to care about what she was wearing, that struck Leoben and Sam as funny.

"But if you don't have anything else-" Sam glanced at Leoben.

"We might see you in something different."

"Meaning what?" Kara narrowed her eyes and crossed her arms under her breasts, which didn't in any way lessen the danger in her expression.

"Have you thought about a dress?"

Kara growled and tackled Sam to the ground, and he let her, and when both of them refused to give way, Leoben joined in. First by putting a hand between the two of them, and then, when they pulled him down, sliding into his place.


End file.
